The Return of Stickman #1280 & Taking New Tshirt Design Preorders

Who doesn't enjoy a good story about monkeys?


Since I'm doing a couple of horror themed conventions this year, I'm printing up some glow in the dark t-shirts. If you wear anything larger than a XL you will need to preorder. Also, I'm giving a deal on free shipping to those who preorder. Do you think this design will sell?

Selling Books at Waysgoose

Instead of drawing a movie review this weekend I was selling books at Wayzgoose. Held at King's Books in Tacoma, Wayzgoose is a printing celebration. The CLAW was invited to one of the teams creating large steamroller posters. I'm pretty please with the design of the poster, done by me and James Stowe. I had a great time at the event and sold more merchandise than I did last year too.

The Return of Stickman #1279

Ten years ago I was in New York City on a trip. I used to go to New York City about once or twice a year back then. And if there was a flying saucer invasion I don't remember it. I've been keeping a diary since 1979. That's when I was living in Japan as a foreign exchange student. My Japanese teachers asked to do it to improve my Japanese. My entries were very short, but after a year of doing it I got into the practice and have pretty much kept one ever since.

My siblings think I have a skewed version of what happened during our childhood. That might be, I tell them, but I'm the only one keeping a written record. So I guess after we're all dead it will become the official history.

The Return of Stickman #1278

This did not happen in real life. At least, not to me. I did want to draw a wordless strip this week. And I also wanted to write a strip about what people should or shouldn't write in their diaries. I read a lot of blogs and public diaries. And by doing so I found that there are some things I just can't stand reading about.

1. Illness
2. Pets
3. Spleen venting
4. Politics
5. Bastards

I'm not saying that these subjects should be completely taboo. I'm saying when it comes to an online diary I'm not going to turn in to listen to you say, again, how cute Cuddles the cat is when she sleeps in the sink (complete with photos.) I'm also not going to subscribe if all you do is go on and on about your bedsore, least favorite politician, or you noisy neighbors in the upstairs apartment. I take that back. I will listen about your noisy neighbors. Just not for longer than three paragraphs.

Damn. I'm spleen venting.

The Return of Stickman #1277

I was halfway through conceptualizing this strip when I stopped to drive my wife to the park-n-ride. She suggested I use some imagery from a friend's dream. Driving home I asked myself, "Why stop with just one friend's dream?" I hope you enjoy the mish-mash as much as I do.

The Return of Stickman #1276

The Comic Critic Reviews Dark City

Why haven’t people heard about Dark City? It came out a full year before The Matrix and dealt with a lot of the same altered state of reality questions. Hell, The Matrix even reused some of Dark City’s sets. Dark City was a huge inspiration to filmmakers and we can easily see its influence on subsequent movies. I’ll tell you why you have probably never seen this fantastic movie: Titanic. That’s right, Titanic. Dark City had the misfortune of coming out on the very same weekend as Titanic. And as we all know, Titanic dominated that opening weekend, went on to dominate for weeks, and then went on to become one of the highest grossing movies of all time. It should be noted that Dark City held its own with a strong opening and a very solid following weekend. But there was no escaping the dominating shadow of Titanic in the summer of 1998. Dark City went on to make okay profits both in the US and overseas. Still, by the end of the year, it ranked only 105th overall. That’s a crying shame because it’s a fantastically freaky movie. I can’t help getting passionate about pushing a movie that is so good and which so few have heard about, let alone watched. I got so riled up that I came within a hair’s breadth of rating it a ten. And nine is a pretty damn high rating. It’s high enough that you should move this to the top of your freaky-mind-bending-movie must-see list. I’m serious. Go add it right now; it doesn’t deserve to be forgotten a moment longer.

The Return of Stickman #1275

Today’s strip was inspired by a news story I saw last night. I don’t remember what the news story itself was about, what I do remember was these large “Edge of Cliff” signs that were in the background. My wife made a comment along the lines of, “Putting up that sign must have been a sucky job for someone.” I instantly knew what I was going to draw for today.

The Return of Stickman #1273

This is the last strip of the "Tale of the Shed" saga. Before anyone asks I want to let you know that there is no dumpster sitting on my yard. Thanks to careful stacking I was able to fit all of my lame shed into the dumpster. And as I closed it up I could not help but wonder what I would do with a dumpster full of shed if the company never came to pick it up.

The Return of Stickman #1272

The real inspiration behind today's strip. After knocking over the majority of my shed with blow of a sledgehammer, there was still a section left standing. My neighbor Don went over to it with his sledgehammer and gave swing at the brace. At the same time he tripped and fell under structure. Fortunately the shed decided to fall North rather than South otherwise it would have landed on Don. As it was he was laying on the ground both cursing and laughing at his good fortune. Well meaning neighbors and potential disaster make for great comic relief.

The Comic Critic Reviews Sucker Punch

The visuals were amazing. Too bad they weren’t there at the start of the movie. I’d wanted the first image on the screen to be the sensual equivalent of taking that first sip of soda from a freshly popped can. Instead, I got a mouthful of dishwater. Maybe it began so quietly that I didn’t notice. Maybe it was that unhurried path through a hackneyed opening story that put me off. Whatever the cause, as the closing credits ran, the wild visuals and fun action were not enough for me to forgive Sucker Punch its lame start. I am, however, going to enjoy seeing the costumes worn by fans at future comic conventions.

The Return of Stickman #1272

In real life the crowd doesn't disappear, not entirely. It does thin out significantly. Suddenly folk are saying their backs have had enough for one day, or their daughter is having a party they forgot about. My tip to anyone else doing this - keep the roof up as long as possible while you tear off the sides.